Umm, excuse me, the war is over

Before I begin my post -- I was deeply saddened to turn on my computer this evening and read with shock that Tim Russert died suddenly today. Wow. I always enjoyed his commentary on the Today Show. I never watched Meet the Press much, but I thought he was intelligent and fair and I enjoyed his election coverage. He seemed like a good man. How will we get through the coming presidential election without him? A very sad day in the world of political journalism.

Let me tell you about my photo of Lake Hiawassee on my main page. (Okay, well, it leads me to the topic of this post, anyway.) I took this photo Memorial Day weekend when I went to North Carolina to meet a new friend in person for the first time. J. and I met on a dating web site on the internet. We hit it off right away, and after several months of e-mails and phone calls I decided to visit him. I needed to get out of Florida - the weather and the flat landscape were really getting to me - and made the trip north to cooler air and mountains. He lives in Murphy, Cherokee County, in southwestern North Carolina - they call it the first or last town in North Carolina, depending on which direction you're headed. It's very close the Georgia border and not far from Tennessee. As a matter of fact we visited Copper Hill, TN when I was there. It was in Copper Hill that we filled up with gas at a convenience store called "Rebel's Pantry". And just down the street another store had a big display of confederate flags for sale. You just don't see that kinda stuff in New York State.

But you do see it in Florida. On I-4 heading towards Tampa, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have raised a gigantic confederate flag easily viewable from the interstate. It's supposed to represent a "rich heritage", but to a lot of people, it represents a bad time in the history of our country and only serves to divide people. Being a Northerner, I find it offensive. I respect people's rights and freedoms - that's why America is America - but there's something not right about flying a 50 by 30 foot flag on top of a 139-foot flagpole - and it's not an American flag.

More on North Carolina next time.